{"id":2811,"date":"2021-08-10T16:03:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T06:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2811"},"modified":"2021-08-05T16:51:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T06:51:01","slug":"questions-over-seal-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2811","title":{"rendered":"Questions over seal deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Tasmania\u2019s farmed salmon industry has been under scrutiny since the publication of Tasmanian award-winning writer Richard Flanagan\u2019s book <em>Toxic <\/em>earlier this year. The recent release of Right to Information documents by the Tasmanian government\u2019s Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment has provided further cause for concern about the aquaculture industry\u2019s three main players, in respect of the deterrent practices used against wild seals when in close proximity to fish farm-leased waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Concerns raised in the RTI documents show DPIPWE staff made several investigations into seal deaths that occurred between January 2018 and January 2020 in and around the salmon leases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tasmanian Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff, spokesperson for the environment, said Australian fur seals, a protected species, had been subjected to \u2018horrible practices\u2019 by salmon companies. These included being systematically attacked with some 4000 Kevlar-cased lead shot \u2013 called \u2018bean bags\u2019 by the industry \u2013 although Woodruff said there was nothing soft or humane about a deterrent DPIPWE staff confirmed were non-biodegradable, toxic and, too often, lethal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe documents show shocking pictures\nof wounded and blinded seals, along with autopsies of seals who died through\ndrowning from blunt trauma, or blast injuries within fish farm leases. The\ngross treatment of wild seals, and the apparently normalised culture of cruel\nand polluting practices by the salmon industry have been laid bare,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The documents state the proportion of\nseals that died due to approved and legislated deterrent use was likely, \u201ca\nlarge underestimate\u201d, as was the estimate of injured seals, or animals with\npenetrating wounds resulting from deterrents, since they would have died outside\nthe lease areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFrom images that are difficult to\nlook at in these documents it\u2019s clear many animals have been shot in the face\nand died, been blinded or injured, and euthanised. These are native animals,\nsupposedly protected under Tasmanian law,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the documented three-year\nperiod DPIPWE issued 789 seal deterrent permits allowing the use of thousands\nof underwater seal \u2018cracker\u2019 deterrents, and bean bags. Both Woodruff, and\nEnvironment Tasmania spokesperson Laura Kelly, have criticised Tasmania\u2019s\nLiberal government saying it had failed to act despite clear evidence of animal\nwelfare abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe were sickened when going through\nthese images and reports \u2013 these seals have been brutalised with explosives and\n12-gauge shotguns at close range and left to bleed to death,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although admitting he had been unaware\nof the RTI findings, Primary Industries Minister Guy Barnett said animal\nwelfare was a \u2018top priority\u2019 for the government and legislation had been\nstrengthened in recent years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve toughened the laws, and\nincreased penalties in that regard as well. This is an important issue and\nwe\u2019ll be monitoring the seal management framework very carefully. The framework\nthat\u2019s set up is a balance to protect marine farm workers as well as animal\nwelfare issues,\u201d Barnett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woodruff and Kelly questioned why no\nenforcement action had yet to be taken given the serious questions that involve\npossible breaches of the Animal Welfare Act 1993. Environment Tasmania has now written\nto the Tasmanian Integrity Commission to request an investigation of the\ngovernment\u2019s failure to implement the Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMinister Barnett should halt the use\nof seal deterrents until an investigation of animal welfare impacts is\nconducted. The Liberals can\u2019t keep ignoring this cruelty,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anne\nLayton-Bennett<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tasmania\u2019s farmed salmon industry has been under scrutiny since the publication of Tasmanian award-winning writer Richard Flanagan\u2019s book Toxic earlier this year. The recent release of Right to Information documents by the Tasmanian government\u2019s Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment has provided further cause for concern about the aquaculture industry\u2019s three main players, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2201,2200,113,2199,105],"class_list":["post-2811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dpipwe","tag-fish-farms","tag-news-2","tag-seal-deaths","tag-tasmania"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":411,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":411,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Tasmania\u2019s farmed salmon industry has been under scrutiny since the publication of Tasmanian award-winning writer Richard Flanagan\u2019s book Toxic earlier this year. The recent release of Right to Information documents by the Tasmanian government\u2019s Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment has provided further cause for concern about the aquaculture industry\u2019s three main players, in respect of the deterrent..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Rosalie-Woodruff-150x150.png",150,150,true],"full":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Rosalie-Woodruff.png",332,383,false]},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"2201":{"name":"DPIPWE","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=dpipwe"},"2200":{"name":"fish farms","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=fish-farms"},"113":{"name":"news","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=news-2"},"2199":{"name":"seal deaths","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=seal-deaths"},"105":{"name":"Tasmania","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=tasmania"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Rosalie-Woodruff-150x150.png",150,150,true],"cvmm-medium":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Rosalie-Woodruff.png",260,300,false],"cvmm-medium-plus":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Rosalie-Woodruff.png",179,207,false],"cvmm-portrait":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Rosalie-Woodruff.png",332,383,false],"cvmm-medium-square":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Rosalie-Woodruff.png",332,383,false],"cvmm-large":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Rosalie-Woodruff.png",332,383,false],"cvmm-small":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Rosalie-Woodruff.png",82,95,false],"full":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Rosalie-Woodruff.png",332,383,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2811"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2815,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2811\/revisions\/2815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}